What does it take to get an event into the WRC?

[J4MIE]

Fellow formers, I don't really post much on here these days, but I am still as passionate about rallying as I ever was

In a few weeks time, I'll be co-driving (again, for the 2nd time) for a good friend of mine on the Safari Rally in Kenya.

Please read this post and have a think, I am genuinely curious about this and will try to put any thoughts to the organisers, as I'll be one of only a very few non-Kenyans to be competing!

The event details were announced yesterday. For this year, they have withdrawn from the African Rally Championship, in order to decide the details of the event that they want, rather than what meets the FIA's approval. It has also allowed them to revert back to their traditional Easter weekend date, whereas the ARC were trying to impose an October date upon them. So it will only be a round of the Kenyan National Rally Championship.

It is never going to be the massively long endurance event that it used to be, but can it still be a small flavour of African Rallying to add to the full World pot? What would the WRC want from the Safari Rally? What kind of event do the organisers have to come up with to attract the world's best once more? They have said that they want it to be back in the WRC within three years, so time really isn't on their side.

They have come up with an interesting route, seventeen stages, 50% of which will be on closed private roads (on farms and wildlife conservancies etc). They have said that by the time the WRC comes, it would be using 100% closed roads, the FIA said it would have to be that way on safety grounds. Shell has come on board to fund a helicopter to fly around the route ahead of the opening cars to make sure it's safe to run. A new tracking/timing system has been brought in to keep track of cars through stages and give instant results, down to 0.1 of a second.

Another major change is the servicing of cars. There won't be a central service area, instead service timing is being built into road section times to allow cars to be serviced at the sides of the road. To me this isn't a problem, but would the WRC teams that have become used to bringing their mobile workshops to events, find this acceptable? I think that might be a step far for them. Will there be extra marshals on the road sections to monitor what teams are doing with the limited number of mechanics per car etc? Who knows.

What would you suggest they do to get the Safari back in?

You can read the preview at http://www.irallylive.com/ir_news.htm?00008060&10 or on the iRally app. Geoff will be updating with our progress throughout the rally.

Have a read of the other thread here http://www.motorsportforums.com/show...ari-Rally-2015 for more info and I'll be trying to keep it updated as the rally unfolds.

[AndyRAC]

Keep the event as it is. Too many events change purely to get in, or stay in the WRC. As a result we get generic identikit events. The Safari would probably have to do the same. The WRC should take events as they are; look at Rally Poland, a tarmac event changed to gravel to get in the WRC. Wrong, just wrong.....

[Zeakiwi]

South Africa might be the place for the African WRC round. Maybe Durban on the East Coast and ship classic cars in containers from Mombasa, Kenya to Durban, SA to have a classic rally at the same time.
https://youtu.be/_rBAR92qT_Q

Hold the event in proximity with Argentina, then send the cars onto Australia.

[AL14]

I think Africa is not even an option for WRC at the moment. They're looking east and they said it. If they go to China in 2016 and Japan from 2017/2018 simply they can't add African rallys, and I think some of the actual intercontinental rallys are in danger. They're very expensive for manufacturers but especially for other drivers. Also cars and WRC are different than Safari's era and Africa is still not a land of economic opportunities.

[rallyfiend]

There was a Candidate Event held in Durban in, I think, 2012, and it was a complete and utter disaster.

That was an opinion of competitors, officials and, I guess, FIA....

[PLuto]

To be in WRC, you must have money and good friends on the high places at FIA. Other things are not important...

I dont think there is a close chance to have african round of WRC soon.

[Rallyper]

As for the Safari, I think one thing is the political situation has to be stabilised at first.

[Zeakiwi]

There was a Candidate Event held in Durban in, I think, 2012, and it was a complete and utter disaster.

That was an opinion of competitors, officials and, I guess, FIA....

http://www.crash.net/wrc/news/116770...ate-event.html Alister McRae though the Kwa-Zulu Natal stages were mostly quite good.

Maybe South Africa is more likely to get a International Cross Country Rally, I guess the CC competitors would rather compete in South Africa than some other countries where international CC rallies have been held in the past.

Maybe George , Knysa https://youtu.be/LTUe_VtIV8Y (The international rugby 7s is held there regularly)

[rallyfiend]

The event McRae won was in 2006.

As you can see, South Africa has quite a history in running Candidate Events that fail to get a passing grade....

[N.O.T]

Safari has no place in todays WRC.